


Danger Zone

by petersfeather



Series: Found Family [8]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Billy Hopper - Freeform, Billy just wants to scream and cry and also sleep, Dad Hopper, El is a lovely little sister who worries for her big brother, Hop is gonna beat everyone in this town up i'm so sorry, Hurt/Comfort, I just........ he is., Implied Harringrove, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Neil is shitty, Period-Typical Homophobia, Referenced PTSD, Susan is shitty too, hop is gonna murder someone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-29 16:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21413278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petersfeather/pseuds/petersfeather
Summary: "Imagine billy running into Neil and going back home to Hoppers with a bruised face and Hopper just...Angry Papa Bear Activated"~~~So Billy stops by the grocery store to grab some more milk because El spilled a bunch this morning and she had nearly cried about it because she felt so bad. Billy helped her clean it up and told her he’d pick some up today. But he got swept up hanging out with Steve after school and now it’s about 6 and Billy is walking out of the store with the milk and a little box of cookies in his grocery bag when…Neil
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Billy Hargrove
Series: Found Family [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534922
Comments: 8
Kudos: 284





	1. Metal Under Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Imagine billy running into Neil and going back home to Hoppers with a bruised face and Hopper just...Angry Papa Bear Activated"
> 
> ~~~
> 
> Billy nearly turns on his heels and walks back into the store. Briefly wonders how stupid it’d be to just walk home. Maybe run home? No, that’d be even more humiliating.
> 
> It’s just that, there’s Neil. Leaning up against the driver’s side of Billy’s Camaro, left arm crossed over his chest and the right extended to tap his heavy fingers on the hood of the car. He’s looking down at his fingers, jaw locked in place, maybe hasn’t seen Billy yet?
> 
> And Billy’s blood is cold but bubbling and his eyes feel like they’re pricking with tears and he’s mad at it. He’s mad that that’s his immediate reaction. He’s mad he has to see this fucking _asshole_ now that his life finally got better without him. He’s mad at himself for thinking that he’d be able to avoid him in this small as fuck town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hellohellohello!
> 
> **PREFACE:** This series is full of a bunch of asks from my blog [@okaybutlikeimagine](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/) where lots of lovely and gorgeous people have decided they like my writing enough to ask me to write things! So these works are going to be pretty casual and pretty random! (I'm trying to take out the shorthand but I might miss some). I might also add some content/polish some stuff up on here. So just be aware of that! **These are not full blown fics**, these are ficlets at best, but really they're just responses to asks on Tumblr. I was asked to post these all in one place here on AO3 for following and bookmarking reasons, which is why I'm doing this! **If you're JUST here to read full blown fics and not little ficlets like this, then sorry but this might not be for you!**
> 
> this is mostly Billy dealing w/ past family struggles. Sometimes I really think about how he still lives in the very small town that Neil and Susan live in. This is just... imagining them running into each other around town.
> 
> prompt is in the summary
> 
> (title of chapter and fic from Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins)

This is something so intensely threatening. Something so imminent and prominent and horrifying.

So Billy stops by the grocery store to grab some more milk because El spilled a bunch this morning and she had nearly cried about it because she felt so bad. Billy helped her clean it up and told her he’d pick some up today. But he got swept up hanging out with Steve after school and now it’s about 6 and Billy is walking out of the store with the milk and a little box of cookies in his grocery bag when…

Billy nearly turns on his heels and walks back into the store. Briefly wonders how stupid it’d be to just walk home. Maybe run home? No, that’d be even more humiliating.

It’s just that, there’s Neil. Leaning up against the driver’s side of Billy’s Camaro, left arm crossed over his chest and the right extended to tap his heavy fingers on the hood of the car. He’s looking down at his fingers, jaw locked in place, maybe hasn’t seen Billy yet?

And Billy’s blood is cold but bubbling and his eyes feel like they’re pricking with tears and he’s mad at it. He’s mad that that’s his immediate reaction. He’s mad he has to see this fucking _asshole_ now that his life finally got better without him. He’s mad at himself for thinking that he’d be able to avoid him in this small as fuck town.

He walks up and tells himself Neil wouldn’t do anything out here in public. Neil _knows_ that Billy got adopted by the Chief of Police. He _knows_ everyone respects Hop. He _knows_ everyone knows Hop got custody. It was a big deal, but mostly because everyone was confused. There was no evidence of anything bad happening to Max or to Susan. There was barely evidence that anything bad happened to _Billy_ and it took a lot to convince people because of how often Billy was getting into fights. It absolutely shouldn't have been a reason not to trust a boy saying he was getting beaten, but no one ever said the corntown of Hawkins was populated with the cream of the crop. And there's not a lot to do in Hawkins but talk, and everyone wondered why Hop wanted to take the boy in when they knew he just recently adopted a little girl as well. Hop only got custody because the judge was a good friend of his and owed him a favor and Hop begged him to _trust him_, to believe him when he said he had seen this.

Billy didn’t blame Max for being too scared to testify. He did his damnedest not to blame Susan, either. And Billy still drives Max to school every day and made her _promise_ to tell him if absolutely _anything_ happened at home. Be it to her or to Susan or even just Neil punching a wall or something. Made her absolutely _swear_ she’d tell him because “hey, I have an in with the Chief of Police now.”

But nothing ever happens. Max swears it doesn’t. Neil is still grumpy and non-responsive and kind of an asshole, but he hasn’t done anything to either of them. Susan doesn’t question it. She shushes Max when she tries to bring Billy up.

But here Neil is, waiting for Billy in plain sight, leaning against his car and turning those harsh eyes onto Billy like fucking _nothing has changed_. Like Billy still needs to answer to him. Slips right back into it like he’s been saving it all up _just for him_. Like his blue eyes and blond hair just _do it_ for him or something.

Billy keeps his back straight, chest out, chin forward. He’s not gonna give in to this assshole.

“William.”

Billy's heart stutters and his mind reels and _fuck._

“Neil.”

Neil’s eyes get harder, squinting like Billy just spit at him or something. “Is that any way to talk to your father?”

“You’re not my father.”

And with that, Neil’s hand claps down _hard_ on Billys shoulder, gripping it like a vice and his eyes are boring into Billy and the people around them stop to look. They both notice.

“Let’s not do this here, huh?” Neil asks, voice still authoritative but feigning casual pleasantries. Like he’s asking Billy to just go on a walk with him.

Neil slips his arm around Billy’s shoulders and guides him forcefully around the outside of the grocery store. Billy can’t help himself- he sends a scared look to a woman who hasn’t been able to stop staring at the two of them. Billy might have imagined it, but he thinks he sees her give a small nod before she runs into the store.

Billy feels the bruises blooming on his face by the time the cop car rolls up.

Officer Callahan and Officer Powell step out. Callahan walks Billy over to his car while Powell talks to Neil about what just happened.

“Y’know kid, I can-”

“I just wanna go home.”

Callahan rubs the back of his neck.

“Don’t suppose I could get you to come down to the station to talk to us about what happened?”

“No.”

“Uh… Billy. He’s just gonna keep getting away with it if you don’t say something-”

“He doesn’t do shit to his wife. Or Max. I’m _fine._”

Callahan nods and hands Billy his grocery bag.

But when Billy gets home… Hop’s eyes are tight. They must have called him.

“Billy-”

“_Save it._” Billy growls, heading for the kitchen. “I brought milk and some cookies.”

He puts the milk in the fridge and turns to see Hopper standing there, hands in his pockets.

“Where’d those bruises come from?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know.”

There’s a pause. Everything inside of Billy is bubbling as he looks at that concern paint Hopper’s face again and there are needles of tears in his eyes and his chest is getting tight when-

“He doesn’t deserve you, Billy. He never did.”

And Billy just wants to _collapse_. He takes a few steps and just falls into a hug with Hopper and just wants to _scream_ but there’s not a lot of air in his chest as he sobs and grips Hopper tight and his eyebrows are knitted together hard and he thinks about how he just fell into submission _again_ when Neil raised his hand and _fuck I really am a trained dog, huh?_

“_Fuck!_” Billy yells, ripping himself away from Hopper to pick up whatever’s closest to him and throw it and it happens to be a pillow from the couch but he doesn’t throw it because there’s El, standing in the doorway of her room and looking at Billy sadly. He drops the pillow.

“Billy?”

He clears his throat.

“Sorry short stuff.” He rubs harshly at the side of his face. “I uh… I got some cookies.”

And El just hugs him and they sit on the couch as Hopper pours them out some milk and cookies and El apologizes for the “bad man” and Billy looks shaken to high hell, eyes red from the tears that were there and he’s shaking and Hop is seeing RED.

And all Hopper wants to do right now is hunt that man down and _slaughter him_. Like, he’s fully ready to go beat that man black and blue for what he’s done to this child because Hopper lost his own child in such a horrific way and having a kid is such a blessing and treating them like _this?_ Making them fear you-no, _not_ just you, making them fear _every adult man_ so much that they _shake_ just from the thought of being touched?

_Fuck no._

He thinks real hard about beating Neil up, but he knows he can’t. Knows he can’t do anything the truly legal way either unless Billy wants to and he doesn’t so he can’t.

So Hop gets real fucking petty and gives Neil traffic tickets and parking tickets _all_ the time and kind of bullies him when he sees him. Uses the few extra inches he has over the man to look down on him hard and get him shaking until he’s rushing to his car. And maybe it’s not how a cop is supposed to act… but it feels like some kind of punishment to this _asshole_ and it’s the best Hop can do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't mind me, i'm just gonna go be sad in the corner. ♥ writing this made me think of [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI4Mv8R0mE0) from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that I HIGHLY recommend watching bc it makes me cry every time.
> 
> also i realize this isn't really Hop and Billy and is more Billy dealing with shit but that was just how i felt to write it at the time. If you'd like more Hop and Billy rather than Billy v. The World, lemme know! ~♥
> 
> you can find this specific prompt [right here on my blog!](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/post/187312038493/imagine-billy-running-into-neil-and-going-back)
> 
> if you enjoyed this and wanna read more prompts and asks and silly tumblr posts and stuff all based around Billy + Steve + Billy's Found Family, you can find all that [@okaybutlikeimagine](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/)! come yell at me, come cry with me, come yell while you cry with me, the world is yours! ♥ I'm just in school rn so literally _everything_ has been slow going.
> 
> you can also find me at my main blog [@pointeful](https://pointeful.tumblr.com/), where you can witness me be a dork and a half
> 
> coolio, there's another chapter of Billy + past family angst. >M< 
> 
> thanks so much for reading and I adore your soul ~♥


	2. Howlin' Roar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Susan scolding Billy for something and maybe says something in the heat of the moment like ”this is why your dad treat you like this” and Billy says that Neil is not his father. But Billy also feels that its his fault he blames himself for getting beaten. And he runhome to hop and collapse in his arm and stays there for a long time as hop comforts him"
> 
> ~~~
> 
> “I used to question it, but really it’s no _wonder_ that your father treated you the way he did.”
> 
> And in a split-second, Billy’s world freezes over. He’s been sturck with shot of ice. He’s completely frozen solid as he watches Susan’s face once again slip into that fearful submission. He thinks maybe she’s going to be as meek and timid as she always is. It was just a blip and she’s about to start apologizing profusely, like she always does when she makes somebody upset.
> 
> But _no._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello there dears!
> 
> **PREFACE:** This series is full of a bunch of asks from my blog [@okaybuutlikeimagine](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/) where lots of lovely and gorgeous people have decided they like my writing enough to ask me to write things! So these works are going to be pretty casual and pretty random! (I'm trying to take out the shorthand but I might miss some). I might also add some content/polish some stuff up on here. So just be aware of that! **These are not full blown fics**, these are ficlets at best, but really they're just responses to asks on Tumblr. I was asked to post these all in one place here on AO3 for following and bookmarking reasons, which is why I'm doing this! **If you're JUST here to read full blown fics and not little ficlets like this, then sorry but this might not be for you!**
> 
> I just wanna say that I'm NOT here to bash ANYONE! (exceptmaybeNeil)
> 
> I just don't wanna seem like I'm trying to give Susan any like... unnecessary hate??? I know I'm the one who wrote her this way, but I promise I have reasons! I just feel like from the way that she appeared in the show and the things that have no doubt taken place throughout her marriage with Neil and her knowing Billy and then also the decade that they live in, this is how I feel she would have acted/been. I've seen people write her COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from this and I have adored it _tremendously_ but this is how I chose to write her, esp to follow the prompt. Just know that I'm not trying to sit here and be like: "every step mom is awful! blah!" I have reasons as to why I wrote her this way.
> 
> also sorry for saying there was more Harringrove in here when there really isn't that much?? I made that before I re-read this and I really thought there was more but then I realized it's really just implied. (all of my fics come with Harringrove implied just as an fyi)(I live for those dumb boys) I changed the tags to reflect that! Just so everyone knows the Harringrove is implied and not explicit.
> 
> ^ Prompt is in the summary ^
> 
> (title of fic and chapter from Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins)

Let’s collectively think about Billy at the grocery store (because I don’t think I'll ever get sick of thinking of Billy doing little mundane tasks like grocery shopping) to pick up some random things like milk and a box of pasta or something, when he turns down the dairy aisle and locks eyes with a red haired woman he hasn’t seen in _months_ standing at the other end of the walkway.

_Susan._

And Billy leaves the aisle _immediately_ because he’s not about to deal with this shit. He doesn’t want to see her and he doesn’t want to handle it. But she fucking _follows_ him, no matter where he’s going she’s peering around corners and looking at him with her tired eyes and he’s just gonna leave at this point when she finally bumps into him.

“_Oh!_ Billy! What a surprise. I’m actually glad to run into you.” She says, clearly nervous as she fixes her cardigan absent-mindedly.

_Bullshit. You fucking forced this._

“Sorry, can’t say the same.” Billy says with that charming smirk he gives to all of the middle aged mothers in Hawkins, except this one is laced with poison and is aimed at someone who is most definitely immune to it.

“Come on now, Billy.” Susan’s eyebrows are furrowed, her eyes disapproving but still semi-fearful. Her eyes are always fearful. “I just wanted to talk to you about something.”

And Billy is standing there basically stranded with a row of cheeses on one side and ice cream on the other and this woman in front of him so he just sits in his hip and looks at her expectantly.

She clears her throat.

“I just… wanted to talk to you. Because… well… there’s no real easy way to say this, is there?”

She seems nervous. For a second Billy thinks this is going to turn into something about Neil. A million reasons why this woman would want to talk to him run through his head all at once. They all scare him, until he comes to find this isn’t about anything he was thinking of.

“It’s just, my friends have been telling me that they’ve been… seeing you with a _boy_. Pretty frequently. Sometimes they say you get rather close to him and… well they’re starting to question my parenting because they know I’ve been your mother for-”

“_You’re not my mother._” Billy grinds out and it seems to take Susan aback.

“I- I… well yes, of course not. Of course not.” Her voice is quiet as she says it.

She looks at Billy with that same hint of fear in her eyes. Billy’s stare is stone. Susan continues.

“I just had to tell you that it’s all getting so… well so _embarrassing,_ honestly.”

“Embarrassing?” Billy’s arms are crossed, jaw tight, eyes fixed.

“_Yes._ You’ve put me in an _incredibly_ embarrassing situation. And I can only think of how embarrassing it must be for Maxine, too.”

Billy’s seeing more red than just Susan’s hair.

“Well _Susan_, I have good news for you. You’re out of my life now and what I do with the local boys is _none_ of your _fucking_ concern.” He’s smiling something poisonous and harsh that Susan would normally shrink at, and she does for a second, before she puffs herself up.

“That’s absolutely _no way_ for you to speak to me, young man.”

Billy’s going to throw fists at the mozzarella balls next to him. He takes a heavy breath. Susan looks like she’s about to step on a real high fucking horse.

“I just had to tell you that people are starting to talk. They say you… you might be… that _thing_ that your father always said you were.” She’s shaking her head, looking anywhere but at Billy for a second. “I’m just showing _concern_ for you, is all. I don’t understand this hostility-”

“Well I can explain it to you. It’s because this is _none_ of your _fucking concern._ I left for a goddamn reason.”

“Billy, _really-_”

But Billy isn’t done. He takes a step forward, looking down on her with a stare to melt ice, his gaze completely blinded by the warm rage clouding his mind because he’s fucking _pissed_ and his whole body is _shaking_ and his hands are slowly morphing fists and then he’s _growling:_

“And it wasn’t to listen to shitty warnings about what your hive-mind, hope-to-be-divorcee friends think of me. I don’t _fucking care_, so kindly _stop talking to me_ and go grab your low fat cream cheese and your copy of Cosmo and cry yourself to sleep about how your husband doesn’t touch you enough.”

His mind is completely fogged up and racing and it’s not until he’s done talking that he starts to see again. Starts to cool down enough to even register Susan’s face in front of him and it’s one of pure submissive fear. Something he thinks he’s felt before, just by looking at it. Susan has always had fear in her eyes, has never stood up for herself, and Billy is so sure this is going to be another instance because nothing in his experience has ever proved otherwise. But suddenly her gaze hardens over and she starts breathing harder and she’s huffing like a fucking chain smoker before she says, with venom in her gaze:

“I used to question it, but really it’s no _wonder_ that your father treated you the way he did.”

And in a split-second, Billy’s world freezes over. He’s been sturck with shot of ice. He’s completely frozen solid as he watches Susan’s face once again slip into that fearful submission. He thinks maybe she’s going to be as meek and timid as she always is. It was just a blip and she’s about to start apologizing profusely, like she always does when she makes somebody upset.

But _no._

No, she hardens up. She straightens her back. She looks Billy dead in the eye. _This_ is the rock she’s chosen to stand on. _This_ is the comment she’s decided to stick up for. _This_ is the side she’s chosen. It’s _this._ And it’s against Billy. It’s saying Billy deserved everything she’s seen Neil do to him.

It’s getting hard to see again, but this time it’s blurry instead of red.

“That man is not my _fucking_ father.” is all Billy can muster up.

They stare at each other for a good few seconds before Susan looks to the people who are slowing down near them. Ever concerned about her public image.

“I think you should go now.” She says like she fucking _owns the store_, like he’s _not fucking welcome_ in this _public grocery store._

He wants to fight. Wants to scream and kick and punch and just _break something._ But he turns on his heels and he leaves with what feels like a storm of emotions trailing him out and he drives back home in a rush of blurry red that honestly inhibits his driving more than alcohol does most times and he’s walking into the cabin and slamming the door behind him and Hop is standing in the kitchen with a mug of something and confused concern in his eyes and a question of: “Billy? What’s wrong?” on his lips and Billy is _falling apart._

Unraveling and spiralling and _falling falling falling_ because he sees Neil every time he closes his eyes. He sees that red face and that mouth full of spit and those eyes full of fire at every little thing and he hears _himself._ Hears what he just said to Susan not 10 minutes ago. Those horrible things that he _knows_ were horrible but he still said them because he’s _just looking for attention, just isn’t disciplined enough, needs to learn respect and responsibility and the consequences to his actions._

His vision is too blurry to see anything but angry and red and puffing _Neil,_ looming above him and knocking him down and his knees can’t physically hold him anymore because he’s unraveling, thread by thread unraveling so fast that he falls and lands on something hard but soft, surrounding his torso because he didn’t fall down, he’s fallen _into_ something and it’s rumbling something low and quiet and-

“Billy? Billy, let’s sit down, okay?”

And once he’s seated he realizes it’s Hop. It’s Jim. And the rage is inside of him because _fuck_ he can’t fucking get rid of it, some days it feels like it just fucking _lives there_ and he’s gathering the fabric of Jim’s shirt up in his fists hard and he’s burrowing his face into Jim’s chest and he’s just _sobbing._ Everything inside of him bubbling out like a soda bottle and the world is black yet blurry and red with that spit filled mouth of anger and he just feels so _weak._ Weak from crying, weak _for_ crying, weak in his mind and his body and he just stays there. They stay there. For what feels like too long to be real, they stay there.

And Hop holds Billy until he feels the boy’s shoulders relax. Until the grip on his shirt is free. Until he stops hearing the mumbled ramblings of _I deserved it I deserved it I deserved it_ being spoken against his chest.

He asks Billy if he wants to talk about it because he’s learning about this stuff as he goes and he knows sometimes Billy can’t talk. Billy shakes his head no.

They listen to a record and drink some hot chocolate and Billy stops shaking about half an hour before El comes home from hanging out with her friends. She immediately notices his red eyes and his runny nose and asks Billy if he wants to borrow one of her stuffed animals as a sleep buddy. He thanks her and lets her hug him before he heads to bed. Sends Hop a quiet “goodnight” and the smallest smile imaginable before he climbs under his covers. But he doesn’t shake through the night and actually gets some sleep and that’s enough to feel like an accomplishment right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this stuff makes me saaaaad and i'm a cryin.
> 
> legit, i just.... i made myself cry writing this. so that's fun! I just love exploring the emotions that are within Billy, esp over all of this and ESP over this new "mother" everyone says he has bc she's most definitely _not_ his mother in his eyes. and when she says that shit?? oh man.
> 
> if you enjoy my writing, there's more of it over here [@okaybutlikeimagine](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/)! come laugh with me, cry with me, yell at me, whatever you want. ^U^ I'm in school so things are slow but when break rolls by I'll be able to post more!
> 
> You can find this particular post [right here](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/post/187456019038/susan-scolding-billy-for-something-and-maybe-says)! It's on tumblr ^U^
> 
> you can also find me being a loser over at my main blog [@pointeful](https://pointeful.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> thanks so much for ALL of your support and I adore your soul ♥


End file.
